Water (Scotland) Act 1980

76 Acquisition of land for protection of water

(1) For the purpose of any provision of this Act conferring power on a water authority or water development board to acquire land for the purposes of their undertaking, there shall be deemed to be included among those purposes the purpose of protecting against pollution any water, whether on the surface or underground, which belongs to the authority or board or which they are for the time being authorised to take.

(2) A water authority or water development board may on any land belonging to them, or over or in which they have acquired the necessary servitudes or rights, construct or maintain drains, sewers, watercourses, catchpits and other works for intercepting, treating or disposing of any foul water arising or flowing upon that land, or for otherwise preventing water which belongs to the authority or board or which they are for the time being authorised to take from being polluted:

Provided that—

(a) before constructing any such works the authority or board shall, if the proposed works will affect any watercourses in a fishery district or which is subject to the jurisdiction of a navigation authority, consult with the fishery district board or the navigation authority concerned;

(b) nothing in this subsection shall authorise the authority or board to intercept or take any water which a navigation authority or any public undertakers are authorised by any enactment to take or use for the purposes of their undertaking without the consent of that navigation authority or those public undertakers.

(3) A water authority or water development board proposing to construct any drain, sewer or water-course for the purposes mentioned in subsection (2) may, with the consent of the highway authority concerned, which may be given subject to such conditions as the highway authority think fit, carry the drain, sewer or water-course under, across or along any street whether within or outside their limits of supply or their area, and such statutory provisions with respect to the breaking open of streets as are applicable to the authority or board shall, with any necessary modifications and adaptations, apply accordingly:

Provided that the consent of the highway authority shall not be required by virtue of this subsection for the carrying by any authority or board of any drain, sewer or water-course under any street maintainable at the public expense which is within the limits of supply of that authority or the area of that board.

(4) A consent required for the purposes of subsection (2) or (3) shall not be unreasonably withheld nor shall any unreasonable conditions be attached to such a consent, and any question whether or not such a consent is unreasonably withheld or whether any condition which it is sought to impose is unreasonable shall in case of dispute be determined by arbitration.